Tonight, Chicago Fireseason 7 episode 15 kicked off what was an epic crossover event with Chicago PD, though by and large, this still felt like an episode of the former show. It was just a way to kickstart a story that mostly is going to be resolved in part 2.

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The mystery began after an important lockbox key was missing at the scene of a blaze, something that led to the firehouse starting to think that there was a firefighter who was tampering with the key and using it for robberies. It wasn’t exactly good PR for the city that there could be a firefighter criminal out there, so it was imperative that the team get to the bottom of it.

This is where Joe Cruz came into play, as he found himself forced to go undercover for most of the episode at a different firehouse … still as Cruz. He had to be believable, and this was a risky play for him since he had to find a way to subtly uncover some of the house’s dirty laundry. It turned out that one of the firefighters was insanely rich and just put out fires for fun, and another had a wife who was dying of cancer. Right when he thought he had someone pinned down as the responsible party, it turned out that they were innocent.

This is where Suggs came into play. He wasn’t even present at the scene of the fire where the lockbox key could be taken … but he still found a way to get involved. As a matter of fact, he was the source making many of the robberies possible. Cruz made this discovery by the end of the episode, and briefly had his life threatened before Suggs showed a different side — he was scared. He didn’t seem like the typical robber type, and it seemed like he was doing this mostly because he had to. He didn’t necessarily seem like he was a bad person, and this is why he wanted to still be there for at least the start of Intelligence’s investigation into him. (That’s all we will say for part 1 of the crossover — more in our part 2 review later.)

Was Cruz altogether great at this job? We wouldn’t necessarily say that, but he managed to at least do what he set out to do. Yet, we are very much concerned over what the ramifications of this could be. How are the other firefighters in the house going to feel knowing that he just used them and their attempts at friendship for an investigation? We’ll see if any of them turn up again.

Does Stella have a new love interest?

If nothing else, one of the guys rescued from the scene is interested, and that’s something that could cause Kelly to realize more of his own feelings and the mistakes from the past. We still want to be optimistic that these two are going to work through their issues, but nothing within the world of One Chicago is ever that easy for anyone. We can’t be altogether shocked that things are turning out this way, either.

There is slightly-better relationship news elsewhere as Brett is celebrating her anniversary with the Chaplain — there may be something there, even though we’re not really getting to see that much of the relationship on-screen.

CarterMatt Verdict

It’s always great to see meaty material for Joe Minoso on this show, just as it was also interesting to see characters like Voight and Grissom getting so involved in this mission with differing viewpoints on how to handle Cruz being in there. Yet, the investigation is now shifting over to Intelligence for Part 2.